RSI, a long-standing customer of BluePhoenix, expects the project to enable its clients to improve customer service and more rapidly introduce new products and services.

The migration effort is a part of an overall modernization project called AGROS aimed at renewing RSI's IRIS system and re-architecting it toward service-oriented architecture (SOA) standards. The project is being carried out by RSI in partnership with BluePhoenix Solutions and IBM Global Services and is supported by Maraton Information Services, a Spanish system integrator. Maraton will provide the on-site integration, BluePhoenix will perform the migration using its automated tools and proven methodology and IBM will provide infrastructure and hardware-related services.

RSI is owned by its member banks and today services more than 80 banks, comprising more than 3,800 branches located across Spain. By migrating its IRIS Core Banking to J2EE, RSI will realize several benefits. Bank employees will have increased availability to the system because IRIS will now be accessible via Web Services. This means users will have the flexibility to access the application via the Web from PDAs and other mobile devices. In addition, member banks will benefit from a reduced time to market of new products and services through the implementation of BluePhoenix AppBuilder and J2EE's modular programming techniques, which allow a high degree of re-use and decreased development time and costs.

"We are migrating a mission-critical application that is used by all of Spain's rural savings banks," said Luis Martinez Gomez-Lobo, production system manager at RSI. "This huge undertaking requires the proven migration expertise and tools that support our growing application and business goals."

He concluded, "After working with BluePhoenix previously and examining other solutions on the market, it is very clear that the company can perform the migration of IRIS to J2EE better, faster and more cost effectively than any other available option."

The IRIS Core Banking Application was originally developed by RSI and IBM Global Services using AppBuilder. AppBuilder allows companies to build, deploy and maintain large-scale, custom-built business applications without being dependent on any particular technology. In this project, AppBuilder was used to redevelop and re-architect the application in a quick and efficient manner.

The BluePhoenix product suite also allows existing legacy applications to be modernized using the BluePhoenix Redevelopment solution. Applications developed and redeveloped with AppBuilder can execute in various configurations of browser, server and communication protocols. This allows complete flexibility in choosing customer-to-business, business-to-business or internal e-commerce architecture.

"This migration with the BluePhoenix extended suite of tools will enable RSI to deliver more flexible and superior service to its member banks," said Mario Zerini, vice president at BluePhoenix. "A much greater number of bank employees will now have access to the system and can provide more expeditious and improved service to their customers. In addition, the time-to-market of new banking products will be shorter due to AppBuilder's capability to support Web Services, facilitating faster development time on one hand, and easier integration with other banking applications on the other."